Medications are an important part of an effective healthcare system, and it is important that medications are properly prescribed, distributed, and consumed. Advances in medication development have led to a proliferation of available medications for virtually any health condition. The vast number of medications available for patients can require pharmacies and hospitals to maintain very large inventories of medications with hundreds of types available at any given time. The large number of medications available may increase the likelihood of distributing the incorrect medication type or dosage to a patient. Manual verification of medicines, including the type and dosage, is generally required to minimize errors in distribution. However, as the number of available medications increases, the number of medications distributed to patients similarly increases. This increase has led to the automation of various steps of the medication distribution process.
Automated dispensing and packaging of medications is a process which must be executed with great accuracy to ensure patient safety and to minimize possible errors. Due to various phases of the distribution process, from the manufacturer to the wholesale distributor to the pharmacy to the patient, automation can be implemented in one or all of the distribution phases. However, upstream errors in packaging can be problematic if not caught before dispensing to a patient. Therefore, manual verification is still generally required to ensure accuracy of medication identification before it is distributed to a patient.